


Wales

by pallidvixen



Category: Half Life Trilogy - Sally Green
Genre: Animal Nathan, Black Witches, Fluff, Gen, Half Bad - Freeform, Half Wild, M/M, The Alliance - Freeform, White Witch Council, White Witches, animal!nathan, nabriel - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-01
Updated: 2015-07-01
Packaged: 2018-04-04 02:51:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,376
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4123140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pallidvixen/pseuds/pallidvixen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nathan and Gabriel go to Wales.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wales

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place following the events of _[Back to the Bunker](http://archiveofourown.org/works/4123104)_. Spoilers for the events of _Half Bad_ and _Half Wild_.

Being here is hard. Harder than I thought it would be. My memories are haunting me. I see Annalise everywhere. I remember lying in bed with her, exploring her body. Feeling her pressed up against me. How soft she felt. Her touching all my scars. How it felt to sleep together. I don’t want to be in this room. I don’t want to be inside. I need to leave. I get up and walk down the hall. Celia is sitting by a fire. 

“You can’t go outside.” 

“I didn’t ask to.” 

“There is night smoke for you.” 

“I know.” 

Gabriel walks into the room. He gives a brief look to Celia and then walks over to me. 

“Can’t sleep?” 

“Not tired.” 

“Let’s talk.” 

I follow Gabriel to his room. 

“Are you going to kill her?” 

“Who?” 

“Celia. She deserves it, for what she did to you.” 

I think about it for a moment. Celia beating me. Locking me up. I stare down at my mangled skin of my wrist. “Maybe when this is all over. I wouldn’t be as good of a fighter if not for her though.” 

“You don’t know that.” 

“They trained me for years. To kill my father. She was training me to kill him. And whoever else the Council wanted I suppose.” 

Gabriel runs a finger over the tattoo on my pinky. 

“I would kill them all just for touching you.” He takes his hand back. 

I pace around the room. 

Gabriel sits on his bed watching me. “Do you want to go back to your room?” 

“No.” 

He nods. “We can stay here. You can’t sleep?” 

I shake my head. 

“You need to be outside?” 

I can’t sleep because of Annalise. But being inside doesn’t help either. Arran is on the night shift right now. On evenings when he isn’t I often fall asleep in his room. I feel safe with him. 

Gabriel goes over to the bowl of night smoke. I think he knows what I’m not saying but he doesn’t mention it. “This will help. Breathe deep.” 

I walk over to the bowl he holds out to me and do as he says inhaling deeply. I do feel better, but I still wish I were outdoors. 

Gabriel pulls off his shirt and changes into his pajamas. He slides into the bed and moves to the corner leaving the covers open. 

I unzip my hoodie and take off my pants leaving me in my tee shirt and boxers. I’m not shy. He’s seen me naked before. I lie down next to him and pull up the blankets. I close my eyes. 

Gabriel starts to talk to me in French. I think he is telling me a story. I fall asleep listening to his voice. 

*** 

Celia holds another meeting after dinner. Everyone is getting restless. The foragers are out on another supply run. Nesbitt has been doing what he can with the food but with limited supplies. People have been complaining about the meals again, just like at the camp. It’s only been ten days since we’ve been back but it already feels like too long. 

“We need more time to regroup.” Celia is trying to reassure the group. 

Gabriel scans the room before stepping forward. “I propose that Nathan I and do some scouting.” 

Celia looks unsurprised. “We have other people for scouting. You and Nathan are some of the only fighters we have left.” 

“We are better than the other scouts.” 

I look at Gabriel. He knows I need to get out of here. 

”We’ll be careful.” 

Celia looks back and forth between us. 

“How long?” 

“A week.” 

“Two days.” 

“A week.” 

“Two days.” 

“Five days.” 

“Three.” 

“Fine.” 

The rest of the meeting is about changing the training schedule and future supply runs. When it ends Gabriel stays behind to talk with Celia. I walk back to his room and wait for him. He opens the door and immediately goes over to the small dresser. I think about him asking for a week. 

“You wanted three days.” 

“Of course I did. I knew she would never let us go for more.” 

“Very clever.” 

He starts to put a few things into his backpack. 

“We’ll leave tomorrow. I wouldn’t mind one more night in a bed.” 

“Where are we going?” 

“Let’s go back to Wales.” 

“Where does Celia _want_ us to go?” 

“Prague.” 

Gabriel still insists that we’ve already been to Wales together before, although I’m not sure. When we did the spell to bring him back from his Fain body we were in Wales, but I thought it was all in our heads. Like visions. He insists we were really there. It’s not worth arguing about. 

“We can spend two days in Wales, one in Prague. It’s not a big city.” 

“You’ve been?” 

“Yes. I have some contacts there. It won’t take more than a day to figure out what’s going on. I’ll get a full report from my informants to help us.” 

He finishes packing things and sits by me on the bed. “You _do_ want to go to Wales, don’t you? It’s your favorite place.” 

“Yes.” 

I stare down at the scar in the center of my palm. Gabriel has a matching one. Souvenirs from bringing him back to his witch body. I trace the scar with my finger, going round and round the circular pattern. He holds out his own hand examining his matching scar. 

“This one is my favorite.” 

He looks up at me. “Your favorite scar?” 

I nod. 

“Why?” 

“Because it was by choice.” 

He smiles at me and reaches for my hand, twining our fingers together and pressing the scars against one another. 

“I’m glad.” He looks down at our linked hands. “I never said thank you. I would still be stuck as a Fain if not for you.” 

I think about all the times he’s saved me. Taken bullets for me. Or tried to. 

“You’re welcome.” 

*** 

I say goodbye to Arran before we go. 

“Be safe.” 

“I’ll see you soon.” 

I hug him for a few moments longer than I should. He always feels so good to me. I feel safe in his arms. 

I go to find Gabriel. We walk into one of the other rooms which has a cut in it. I calm myself and focus on Wales. The smell of the air, the color of the sky. I stab my hand forward but nothing catches. I try again. Nothing. 

Gabriel can tell I’m getting frustrated. I know he wants to help. “How did you do it before?” 

“I don’t know. I just thought of a place and it sort of happened.” 

I try one more time. I can’t do it. 

“Maybe only one cut will fit per room?” 

“Maybe.” 

We go back to Gabriel’s room and I try again but still can’t do it. Maybe I’ve forgotten how to do it, if I ever really knew how in the first place. 

“It’s possible that you can’t make cuts inside the bunker.” 

I turn to Gabriel and nod. He could be right. 

“Mercury could have spelled it that way so no one could make a cut she didn’t know about.” 

This is possible, but I’m more worried that it’s my lack of experience with this Gift. I’ve only made one cut before I didn’t really know what I was doing. 

When we get outside it feels amazing. The night air embraces me and I feel connected to the Earth. I haven’t used my Gift in a long time. I want to suddenly. I feel _him_ inside me, scratching to get out. The animal adrenaline floods into me. He is clawing at me. I tell him to be patient and wait for the surge to pass. 

Gabriel waits for me to speak. 

“I need a minute.” 

“Take your time.” 

Gabriel follows me into the woods. 

I breathe deeply and walk further and further into the trees. The animal adrenaline is fading but I still feel it. I find a place to sit and focus once again. I try to feel the other Gift like I do my natural born one. 

I think of Wales again. How free I feel there. Raising my hand I feel through the air and then I catch something. It feels like a seam. I open my eyes and find Gabriel watching me. I get up and stand next to him taking his hand, leading him over to the cut. His hand in mine, I reach out and we are falling forward. 

*** 

The night is an inky black. Nesbitt says he can see well at night. I wonder if that is his Gift. I still see the same as I always did so I don’t think my father had that Gift. The air tastes different here but familiar. Gabriel releases my hand but stays standing next to me. I look at the sky again then back to our surroundings. I know where we are. We walk on, Gabriel following silently at my side. 

The Council knew about every trip to Wales I made. That was how they took me from Gran. Nesbitt says I leave trails everywhere. But I was travelling through conventional means. I took the train. I wonder if Nesbitt will ever tell me what he means and show me how _not_ to leave a trail. I’m not sure how to cover my tracks. This trip is risky. I know that. Gabriel wanted to help me get away, but I’m not sure that coming here is smart. Still, I feel more at peace out here than I have in a long time. 

I take us to one of the most remote places I have been to out here. Even if the Council knew I had gone to Wales, it didn’t necessarily mean they knew _where_ in Wales I went. I’m pretty confident no one will find us out here. I head toward a small stream. The water tastes as good and pure as I remember it. We settle down to make camp. Gabriel sets down his bag and gathers wood. I light a fire and we sit close to each other but not touching. I pull out the Fairborn from its sheath and watch it in the light. It whispers to me. It wants to cut. 

“I want to see you hunt.” 

“You wouldn’t be able to keep up or be quiet enough.” 

Gabriel looks disappointed. 

“I can bring us dinner.” I know he has only packed whatever Nesbitt could spare from the kitchen. A few provisions. Nothing fancy, just some cheese and bread. 

He grins at me. “Dinner?” 

“Can you cook?” 

“In a manner of speaking.” 

I put the Fairborn back in its sheath and hand it to him. Gabriel puts it in his bag. Unzipping my jacket I let it drop next to him. I stand up and move away from Gabriel. When I am a little outside the circle of light cast by the fire I start taking off my clothes. I throw my shirt at Gabriel which he catches easily. Then my jeans. I stuff my socks into my shoes and throw them to Gabriel one at a time. I ball up my boxer shorts and throw them last. 

“You ready?” 

He nods. 

I step back into the light and shift into a fox. 

_the world is all scents and colors. i smell that scent again. clean water, grass and metal. gabriel. he doesn’t move, just watches us. we watch him. scent the air again. we take off running through the trees. we stop listening carefully. we are hungry._

_we find a warren. we wait patiently. eventually two rabbits come out. we watch them for a moment. i feel my legs tense, ready to spring. the second they sense danger they run. i chase after them and gain quickly. my jaw closes around a leg and i hold fast pulling the rabbit under me. i let go of the leg and close down on neck, snapping it. then i chase after the other one._

_i run back to gabriel. i see a fire. i am wary of the fire. fire is bad. i place a rabbit down in front of gabriel. i rip into mine, my paws pulling at the fur. i eat around the bones. we are hungry and the animal tastes good. like the land. we like it here. my muzzle covered in blood and fur._

_after eating i run around again. the trees blur by. we can see fine in the dark. i piss around us marking my territory. then i head back. i stay near gabriel. we need to protect him. he is ours. he smells good. we watch as he lies down by the fire. i go near him and walk around in a circle before settling down next to him. i curl my tail around my body and watch the forest._

_we watch the forest for hours. i can’t sleep like this. like him. animal me. we are too alert. each noise, each creature draws us. animal me wants to stalk and hunt. he hasn’t been to wales before. it’s a new environment and he’s on edge. i shift back._

I wake up in the morning curled around Gabriel. He is wrapped in a blanket and my chest is pressed against his back, my knees tucked under his, my arm thrown over his waist. I don’t move. It takes me a moment to realize where we are. Wales. I feel him stirring after a few minutes. Gabriel turns and looks into my eyes. I see the golden triangles in his and watch as he slowly blinks. His hair is all mussed up and I pull him closer. He pulls an arm out from under the blanket and slowly reaches for me. He runs his thumb over my lips staring at them. Then he looks back at me. 

“Someone didn’t clean up from dinner.” 

I raise my hand that’s around his waist, it is covered in dried blood. I realize my mouth and face must be too. 

Very slowly he leans forward, watching me the whole time. Gently, he pressed his lips against mine. He pulls back and quirks his lips up. “So what’s for breakfast?”

**Author's Note:**

> Now with a follow up story: [Gifts](http://archiveofourown.org/works/5739166)
> 
> Come say hi! I'm [pallidvixen](http://pallidvixen.tumblr.com/) on tumblr.


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